Chapter 211 - Dinner Date

The feast went well, the Guards broke the silence once they obtained the comfort of food which untangled their built up nerves. They started on and on conversations about the battle half of the times but also about various other topics. Some talked in groups and some grabbed a beer and started strolling around the Throne Room along with a buddy, trying to enjoy this day as much as individually possible. It became less of a feast and more of a low impact party actually, there was only light drinking and a bit of fun games too. 

Most popular of which, was this new fangled fancy game a father saw his children playing. They called it, "Thumb Wars"! Imagine seeing a room filled with tens of buff men battling each other's thumbs! It became a bit more interesting when some tried it with Gauntlets on, Iron started screeching all over the large room. 

The sound was quite deafening so King Zar requested these men to play with Gauntlets off for the sake of having healthy ears, however he did try the game with a lot of men and found it quite entertaining. Most let him win due to stressing over exaggerated respect, but some proved quite troublesome in such a battle too.

Apart from Thumb Wars, the men also tested their Arm strength against each other. The game, Arm wrestling. Playing this kind of game however required safety procedures. Because an Arm can be broken considerably common depending on the person, it happened before a load of times. The chances aren't flat Zero! None however tried to battle Isabel or any other woman from Lan Zhe's Platoon, it wasn't because they wanted to respect their space either. Well maybe partially! But they also feared failure, they saw these people in battle.

Eric though, faced Isabel in a Thumb War. Shocking too, because this game literally requires for two people to hold each other's hand in mid air. Normally, Isabel would never do any activity which includes holding hands be it either with women and especially men! She doesn't like it, but Eric is a child after all. Plus with Commander Alia's recently shown humane support, Isabel has aimed to be more open. She even challenged Mogranius! But since he sustained many injuries in this battle, Isabel let her win. Mogranius thought that he actually won and was quite proud too! He started flying around through the throne room in joy, luckily it didn't cause any casualties.

King Michael on the other hand, wanted to test his arm strength for once, but his minor pot belly didn't show any effectiveness. Luckily King Zar went easy on the guy and let him win a couple of times after King Michael faced 20 losses. 

It was troublesome for the maids to serve these many men, food for example was delayed. It took time to serve everyone! So King Zar used the opportunity to implant some seeds on these men's minds! The lack of men for various tasks and businesses will be limited especially with the high demand of Guards which will soon strike this Kingdom thanks to recent battle and soon to be upgraded defense features.

King Zar wants to put a lot of ladies in various jobs, even in the Army! The Kingdom desperately needs Guards and there are now nearly 2,400 people in this Kingdom. Yes there are elderlies and children but there are also many strong capable women who can help strengthen the Kingdom, make it more independable and indomitable than it ever was!

The problem is, people aren't used to seeing women work outside of the house unless it is for Farming reasons, without any Farms here except for the recently established Gr.a.p.e Farm, people aren't used to seeing women out of their houses too much unless they are visiting neighbors or relatives or there is some religious celebration going on.

So men of the House will likely not let women work a full time job due to soul thought of, "What will people say?". The Tailoring business was far easier to establish but this one will be a lot more different, difficult. 

How did King Zar plant a seed to these people's mind that a task isn't limited to one gender? A tricky way no doubt but quite simple too. He ordered... well not ordered, more precisely he asked around 10 Guards to help with the tasks in the Kitchen and 10 others with the task on serving the food.

Of course, at least half of the Guards he asked had different thoughts about this. They didn't want to do this to be frank! But they would feel quite embarrassed if they said no! The King is giving them free luxurious food, he is rewarding their bravery with Gold Coins and even is willing to provide the families of the fallen battle heros, with free food and lumber too throughout a year or permanently, based on different circ.u.mstances.

The men didn't disagree but gave the Calidum Lutum women of the Platoon a few weird looks, asking themselves why these ladies aren't working instead. But at this point it was just another part of King Zar's little master plan. It is amazing how far ahead he can think when he isn't facing a nervous breakdown like he did a few hours ago.

Although some men walked like turtles hoping not to spill the dishes, until they got the hang of it at least! With some others proving quite fast, for two reasons primarily. A lot of the men were mocking the 10 who were serving food, until King Zar gave them strong displeased look. The men wanted to finish earlier so there would be less eyes on them. As for the second reason, the ten men who served were quite hungry and couldn't wait to eat.

The 10 men in the Kitchen, were put to a task from the head chef! She made them boil potatoes, peel them and place them on bowls! Cooking meat would take a lot more time, so it wasn't a task that could be done in 10 minutes. Unless the meat was already boiled!

The Egg delivery from Gaster Kingdom didn't yet arrive, but King Zar still had a small portion of Eggs because he bought them from travelling merchants who stop by here in Pameres Kingdom. Everyone loves eggs, boiled eggs are delicious. So the head Chef made them boil some, the eggs were given away with King Zar's approval of course.

Black Marlin meat was included throughout half of the dishes, the Kingdom can spare a lot of them. Especially for these people who literally risked their lives for this Kingdom, they deserve such luxury. And of course there were many other sorts of food that required preparing and serving, but it would take ages to explain all of them bit by bit. We need to move on to the most important part, since this is the last Chapter of this wonderful Volume.

Although all these people were enjoying this amazing feast, Seer just took a few bites and made his way out of the Throne Room for another task. For a beginning, he had to get all of those rewards ready! It required a lot of leather sacks but luckily, that's all of which the Tailoring Business has been making since there isn't an official order yet.

Counting to 500 is hard enough, imagine doing it for 200 times! It took most of his day, dusk broke and he still hasn't all of the rewards ready. He has a bit over 1/3 of them even ready even after Maleesa joined in and helped him for about an hour. The most important part is giving the Gold rewards to the men who will be leaving from here tomorrow, the Guards who take residence here can wait for a few more days, it is no big issue.

When the Candle in the treasury was close to burning out, Maleesa broke the nerve racking silence. "Guh!! I have no idea how you did this since midday. My head is aching!" Why were they not bursting in conversation until now even after considering the fancy they have towards each other? Well it is because counting until 500 requires concentration!

"You are supposed to be used to this, you prepare all the salaries." Joked around Seer, trying to irritate Maleesa for all of the good reasons. He enjoys annoying people he fancies or basically just likes.

"I have a month to do it! And no Salary is 500 Gold Coins!" She slightly yelled, irritated no doubt but mostly because all of the counting. "Besides I'm used to you helping me on your free time oh busy King's Assistant!" Of course she can let out comments with such aims as well. Quite frankly she just wants his attention, it is why she started this whole conversation.

"I suppose you will need to return the favour!" Joked around Seer, but was also indirectly asking her for help. He needs all available hands thanks to this recent battle. "We have our work cut out for us these past few days."

"Oh we worked enough today." Expressed Maleesa trying to escape this task with another aim behind it. To clarify, she is willing to help however she can. "We need a break." Playfully tip toed Maleesa towards Seer after and bowed down, reaching out her hand to drag him out of work. "Will you join me for a drink Sir?"

"Sir?" Asked Seer with an eyebrow raised, trying to be annoyed but Maleesa was doing quite some adorable acts, he couldn't be mad. Accepting her invitation, he was dragged out of the Royal Treasury room and was led on the Castle's second floor.

A bit confused, he pointed out the obvious. "The Feast is down there." Infact, he could even hear all the commotion down there from men chanting through arm wrestling matches!

"Just trust me, you are gonna love this!" She picked up her pace with a lot of enthusiasm on her spring, her tone too!

However, the second floor mostly contains empty bedrooms, there aren't any more homeless people in the Castle so where he thought that this situation might be leading, made him nothing less than nervous.

To beat his expectations completely, Maleesa dragged him on a Balcony and the view there is just amazing! They could see a lot of the Kingdom from up here and the sunset too, with the moon rising up it became a lot more beautiful. The only bit of artificial light on this Balcony, were a couple of candles set over a small dinner table, the moon provided most of the light.

But yes there is a dinner table in this Balcony, Maleesa didn't set it up herself but it was all her idea. Of course, he asked King Zar first for permission. His mind going towards the same thoughts like Seer when he was being dragged up here, King Zar agreed in a blink of an eye and is literally expecting a marriage from these two soon even though he doesn't express it by word. 

Furthermore, he even literally ordered for the maids to help set up the Table. All Maleesa had to do was stall Seer for an hour at max. With all this feast going on, the Castle is a little bit understaffed otherwise they would prepare it in a matter of minutes, the meal doesn't have to be hot after all. To enhance the mood, King Zar restricted access of the second floor for this night thinking this little dinner date will lead to something, hotter.

"Did you prepare all of this?" Asked Seer, quite amazed of the dinner. He has been working hard all day and this is quite a stress reliever.

"Um. Guilty!" She smiled enough to grab his attention with a little giggle after, with a little bit of actual guilt she absolutely had to add. "I did have some help from King Zar and the maids though." Grabbing his hand after, and looking him directly in the eyes she asked. "Do you like it?"

Joking around, he replied. "Oh, it is a little bit cold up here, but." Dragging her into a hug this middle aged man became a little bit more romantic to show gratitude. "But your warmth is all I need."

Such a reaction coming from the guy who was too shy to actually do anything with her when they were alone in his house at night, made her indeed shy. She is used to herself teasing him, but now the tables have turned. Not the actual table though, that would be bad and would ruin the nice dinner.

Pulling their heads back from the hug, he looked at her straight in the eyes and decided to show gratitude in two ways. One way, with a simple. "Thank you." And secondly, well. Let's just say that this cute little couple kissed each other for the first time ever!

The kiss became quite long lasting and neither of them wanted to let go, at this pace they would be doing "it" in the Balcony. But they are both quite hungry, so maybe that will be an activity for another time!